Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture andRural Dܫevelopment (MARD) will select cooperatives for participation indevelopment of hi-tech agriculture, based on their operation efficiency and criteria setby🥃 the Government.

The ministry said only a small percentage – 1.8 percent - ofexisting agricultural cooperatives have adopted advanced technology in their operation,while the goal is to raise the ratio to 10 percent, or 1,500 cooperatives. The selection will be based on the Prime Minister’s Decision575/QD-TTg approving a master plan for hi-tech agricultural zones and regionsto 2020 with a vision to 2030. Another basis will be the MARD’s Decision 738/QD-BNN-KHCN oncriteria of hi-tech, and clean agricultural programmes and projects, and thelist of advanced technologies in agriculture. According to the MARD, priority will be paid to developinghi-tech agricultural cooperatives in regions designated as hi-tech agriculturalzones and regions. Specifically, hi-tech cooperatives will be developed for coffeegrowing in the Central Highlands, northwest and north central regions; tea inthe northern province of Thai Nguyen and Oolong tea in the Central Highlandsprovince of Lam Dong; dragon fruit in the south central province of Binh Thuan;vegetable in the northern province of Lao Cai, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi MinhCity and Lam Dong; flower in Lao Cai, Hanoi, HCM City and Lam Dong; for-exportfruit in southeast region and the Mekong Delta. In the field of animal husbandry, there will be cooperativesapplying hi-tech for raising dairy cow in the northern province of Son La,Hanoi, the central province of Nghe An, and Lam Dong; raising pigs in the RedRiver Delta and the southeast; and poultry in the Red River Delta, the northeast,north central region and the Mekong Delta. In aquaculture, the focus is on salt and brackish watershrimp farming in the Red River Delta, north central and south central coastalregions, the southeast and the Mekong Delta. The Government has put in place several mechanisms andpolicies supporting hi-tech agricultural cooperatives, such as Decree 193/ND-CPstipulating in details a number of articles of the Law on Cooperatives, Decree55/2015/ND-TTg on credit policy for agriculture and rural development, and somedecrees on the pipeline dealing with organic agriculture and linkages inmarketing and sale of agricultural products. Hi-tech agriculture is also eligible for capital from manyprogrammes such as those on agricultural restructuring, agriculture promotion,vocational training and preferential credit for hi-tech production.-VNA